


Saving Captive Percy

by mahalidael



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Kidnapping, M/M, Medical Experimentation, SCP Foundation - Freeform, bad backcronyms, its just there, the romance is not a major tenet of the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-05-14 21:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14777694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahalidael/pseuds/mahalidael
Summary: Percy, Annabeth, and Nico are spotted and detained by a scientific research company trying to study demigods.Annabeth and Nico escape. Percy is less fortunate. And it seems that this "Foundation" has more tricks up its sleeves than they're letting on.





	1. Iteration 1

**Author's Note:**

> this one was inspired by this tumblr post
> 
> http://fuocogo.tumblr.com/post/101980320372/demigods-as-scps-note-as-in-like-what-would
> 
> i tried replicating the scp style as well as i could while sticking to canon pjo, but ive been staring at this one so long that it could be free-form poetry and i wouldnt be able to tell. i gave it my best shot tho, and thats what counts

**Item #:** SCP-3229

 **Object Class:**  Euclid

 **Special Containment Procedures:**  Each instance is contained within seperate Type S Humanoid Containment Cells in Site-28. SCP-3229-A's cell is modified to restrict water supply; the subject must be sedated and restrained before being exposed to liquid water. SCP-3229-A cannot wear clothing with pockets. Standard humanoid containment procedures otherwise apply.

Testing of the subjects' anomalous properties are to be supervised by Dr. Marino. Weekly interviews to determine the psychological conditions of SCP-3229 are to be conducted.

 **Description:** SCP-3229 is the collective designation of three objects.

SCP-3229-A is a humanoid male that answers to the name Percy Jackson. Subject has acute control of surrounding water and will use these properties to attack staff whenever possible.

SCP-3229-B is a humanoid female named Annabeth Chase. Subject displays no abnormal physical characteristics for an individual of its age and is highly cooperative with Foundation efforts.

SCP-3229-C is a humanoid male that claims to be named Nico di Angelo. Subject, while not hostile, is generally uncooperative with staff and refuses to answer questions. Its age is estimated to be 1█. Of note is that while appropriate records of birth were recovered for other instances, the only records of a human matching SCP-3229-C's description refer to an individual born in 1929.  ~~This subject has no other unique anomalous properties.~~ See Interview Log-3229-C-13.

All three instances have a number of common properties, including:

  * Behavioral patterns consistent with ADHD and dyslexia.
  * Resistance to a mild cognitohazardous effect surrounding the anomaly and all related objects, referred to as "the mist" by SCP-3229-B. This effect alters all anomalous activity to be perceived as an action within the parameters of non-anomalous activity.
  * Familiarity with a certain dialect of Ancient Greek.
  * Aversion to electronic devices, particularly those used in communication.
  * Abnormal reactions to an anomalous substance recovered by Agent Roland (see Addendum-3229-1). The substance, which causes spontaneous human combustion in 99% of D-class tests, accelerates healing in SCP-3229 instances.
  * Abnormal interactions with AO-2620, a collection of intangible swords. SCP-3229 instances interact with AO-2620 as if they are tangible.
  * Apparent belief in Hellenic Polytheism. Instances have been observed using the phrases "oh my gods," "gods no," and "holy Hades."



**Discovery:** All instances of SCP-3229 were discovered by Agent Mark Roland who, at the time, was investigating an alleged warehouse used by Marshall, Carter and Dark Ltd. While searching for anomalous wares, Roland mistakenly entered an extradimensional portal, now designated SCP-████. Roland used Foundation-issue communications to relay the incident, during which he had his initial encounter with SCP-3229. The following is the transcript of the call made to an internal emergency hotline. 

> [BEGIN LOG]
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:** You've reached the Foundation field agent hotline.
> 
> **Agent Roland:** I think I fell into a pocket dimension or something. Can you send a team to pull me out of here?
> 
> [ _Running water._ ]
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:** I'll activate the GPS in your phone, but if you're really in a pocket dimension it might not be accurate. Can you describe your surroundings? Did you literally fall?
> 
> **Agent Roland:** I didn't fall in a hole, but I'm definitely underground. I'm in a tunnel. It's pretty dark in here. I'm using my phone screen to see.
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:** Okay, the GPS says you're in Albequerque. Is that right?
> 
> **Agent Roland:** Hell no! I came in here from Manhattan!
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:** Describe how you came in?
> 
> **Agent Roland:** I was poking around in a shady warehouse looking for [an anomalous vibrator](http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-297). I found this odd door in the back, it had some kind of sigil on it. I thought it might be back there. I opened the door, wound up in this tunnel, and now the door's gone. I've seen a lot of weird shit, but extradimensional stuff really isn't my field.
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:**  It sounds like you went through a Way.
> 
> **Agent Roland:** Does it?
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:**  It could be something else, but either way, you shouldn't stay put. Keep moving, and if you hear anything coming towards you, go the other way. And on the off chance that you do run into a member of [the Hand](http://www.scp-wiki.net/serpent-s-hand-hub), don't tell them who you really are.
> 
> **Agent Roland:** Right. I'm gonna try recording some data for you guys while I'm down here.
> 
>  [EXTRANEOUS DIALOGUE REDACTED]
> 
> **Agent Roland:** Francisco, I hear something.
> 
> [ _Distant footsteps, faint tapping, and muffled speaking._ ]
> 
> **Junior Researcher Winger:** Mute me and hide the phone.
> 
> [ _Agent Roland follows the instruction._ ]
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:**  [ _Distant_ ] Do you hear someone talking?
> 
> [ _SCP-3229-A's_ _speech becomes clearer._ ]
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:** Hey, there's a guy back here!
> 
> **SCP-3229-B:** [ _Distant_ ] Percy! Don't just run ahead!
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:** Someone's here, though! I think he's lost. Are you okay?
> 
> **Agent Roland:**  Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was alone down here.
> 
> [ _Footsteps, tapping._ ]
> 
> **SCP-3229-B:** Percy! Leave him alone, he could be a monster!
> 
> **Agent Roland:** What are you talking about? I'm an accountant! I tried to go in the records room and ended up here.
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:** See? At this point I'm pretty sure I know what monsters look like. He's just a mortal that got lost.
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** It happens.
> 
> **Agent Roland:** Whoa, wait a second, how young are you kids? What are you doing here?
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:**  We're-
> 
> **SCP-3229-B:**  Let's just get him out of here before something bad happens. Nico, can you-?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** I'll just bring him to the nearest exit and give him cash for a bus. I'm already on a walking stick.
> 
> **SCP-3229-A:** I mean... I guess.
> 
> **SCP-3229-B:** Alright, come on.
> 
> [ _Footsteps, tapping as Roland follows SCP-3229._ ]
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** Do you have a phone on you?
> 
> **Agent Roland:** No, why?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:**  I thought I heard more than one person back here.
> 
> **Agent Roland:**  It was probably an echo. Seriously, though, what are you doing here? You seem a little young to be traveling through underground hellscapes.
> 
> **SCP-3229-B:** It's a good shortcut if you need to get cross-country fast - assuming you don't get lost, but that's why we brought Nico. He spent a whole year down here once.
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:**  That was when it was an actual hellscape. I got my foot trapped in a door once. The door wouldn't open. I was just starting to chew my leg off when an empousa popped into the room from the other side. And this was day one for me.

Agent Roland reappeared in ██████████, Wisconsin thirty minutes after encountering the SCP-3229 intances. Audio logs indicate that the instances guided Roland to an exit from the extradimensional space. SCP-3229 gave Roland $20 in mixed bills "to get home." When the instances began to argue amongst themselves whether the amount given would pay for public transport to Manhattan, they added five unidentifiable coins to the sum, stating that they would "probably [be] worth something." On further examination, the coins were composed of pure gold and did not match any known currency in circulation. SCP-3229 were flagged as persons of interest.

_Pictured: Coin received from SCP-3229 instance._

A month following this, embedded Foundation personnel identified SCP-3229 as inhabiting a Montauk cabin rented by Sally Jackson and Paul Blofis. Agent Roland was authorized to approach, as he was familiar with the subjects. After investigating the subjects and confirming their anomalous properties, Agent Roland contacted a recovery team to collect the subjects. Mr. Blofis and Mrs. Jackson were not detained and are designated POI-5272018 and POI-5272019.

  **Interview Log-3229-A-4**

> **Foreword:**  SCP-3229-A was extremely agitated and refused to cooperate with all prior interviewers. Agent Roland was the fourth to attempt interviewing the subject.
> 
>  **Interviewer:** Agent Roland
> 
>  **Interviewed:** SCP-3229-A
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Agent Roland** **:** Please state your name for the record.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:**  Uh... Percy Jackson.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:**  Can you explain your primary anomaly?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** My what?
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** Your hydrokinesis. [ _Pauses._ ] What you do to water.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** Why should I? You've got me locked up, figure it out yourself.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** I understand your frustration, but cooperation will be better for you in the long run.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** I don't plan on there being a long run.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** And yet you haven't outright attacked me.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** I don't want to attack mortals.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** What do you mean, "mortals?"
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** People like you.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** Can you elaborate?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:**  People who have two human parents. You're like the plain cheese pizza of people.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:**  We looked at your records - you were raised by a single mother. Are you implying your father is a non-human entity?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:**  Yes. Jimmy Buffett. [ _Agent Roland writes down this response._ ] No, he's Poseidon!
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** So your anomalous properties come from these origins?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** I don't have to answer this. You lied to me back in the labyrinth and I believed you, and - and now we're all locked in some government prison somewhere.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:**  We're not the government.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** Whatever. [ _Becomes mildly distressed._ ] Gods, I promised my mom I wouldn't disappear again, and now this happens.
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** Trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to inform your mother of the situation.
> 
> [ _SCP-3229-A becomes very distressed._ ]
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** What? My mom's here?
> 
>  **Agent Roland:** I can't disclose that.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** No! Where's my mom?
> 
> [ _Supervising researcher Dr. █████ turns on an in-cell PA system._ ]
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** That's enough, Roland, we're making it upset.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:** [ _Frustrated_ ] I'm not an "it," I'm a person!
> 
> [ _SCP-3229-A produces a pen from its jumpsuit, despite having no pen when examined before the interview. Post-cognitohazard cleanup, this pen appears as a xiphos[1]. Subject thrusts the object into the plexiglass separator between itself and Agent Roland._ ]
> 
>  **SCP-3229-A:**  Just tell me where she is!
> 
> [ _Dr._ _█████ activates lockdown procedures. SCP-3229-A is injected with a strong sedative._ ]
> 
> **< End Log>**
> 
> **Closing Statement:** The cognitohazardous object produced by the subject, upon further testing, manifests in the pocket of any clothing SCP-3229-A is wearing. The subject, at the time of interview, was wearing a D-Class jumpsuit, which includes a small pocket. SCP-3229-A's clothing was modified accordingly.

**Interview Log-3229-B-4**

> **Foreword:** SCP-3229-B was highly cooperative with Foundation personnel and was minimally restrained. The interview was conducted after discoveries were made regarding SCP-3229's origins.
> 
>  **Interviewer:**  Dr. █████
> 
>  **Interviewed:** SCP-3229-B
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Dr. █████:**  Thank you for speaking with us, B.Can you tell me anything about you and your associates' activities prior to your stay here?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** I wouldn't call them associates. Well, I don't know Nico that well, but Percy's my boyfriend. He's probably flipping out. Can you tell him I'm okay?
> 
>  **Dr. █████:**  We'll see. So "Nico" is what SCP-3229-C calls itself?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** Don't call him an "it" to his face, but yes.
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** We did some investigation into your birth certificates, and some things don't quite add up. We've found believable information on you and-
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** Percy and I.
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** ...Yes. However, the only records matching C's description state that it was born in 1929. Is that correct?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** Probably. I'm assuming you work for some kind of government agency?
> 
>  **Dr. █████:**  No, the Foundation is independent from governing bodies.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** But you investigate magic stuff, right?
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** Yes.
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** Go check out the Lotus Casino in Vegas. Time doesn't pass while you're inside of it. Nico was stuck there until 20██. I think his physical age is around 1█.
> 
>  **Dr. █████:**  While we're on the topic - those records state that C had a sister. Can you tell us anything about that?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** [ _Uncomfortable_ ] No, she's dead now.
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** Surveillance of the Montauk cabin indicates you mentioned a summer camp in Long Island you and the other two attended together. Is "Camp Half-Blood" relevant to your shared anomalies?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** [ _Visibly hesitates_ ] ...No.
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** You alluded to the existence of other "half-bloods" who share your anomalies in the same conversation. Can you describe them?
> 
> [ _Neither Dr. █████ nor SCP-3229-B speaks for approximately one minute._ ]
> 
>  **Dr. █████:** I can't make you elaborate on this, can I?
> 
>  **SCP-3229-B:** No.
> 
> **< End Log>**
> 
> **Closing Statement:** There was a noticeable shift in SCP-3229-B's affect after Dr. █████ mentioned Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp allegedly attended by all instances. The subject continues to refrain from discussing the summer camp. Research into the location is ongoing.

**Interview Log-3229-C-13**

> **Foreword:**  Prior to this interview, SCP-3229-C refused to cooperate with or speak to staff in any way. Following the unsuccessful attempts of several interviewers, Site-28 staff contacted Dr. Marino. Dr. Marino is fluent in Italian, which the interview was conducted in.
> 
>  **Interviewer:** Dr. Marino
> 
>  **Interviewed:** SCP-3229-C
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Dr. Marino:** Please state your name for the record.

> [ _SCP-3229-C makes eye contact with Dr. Marino, but does not respond._ ]

> **Dr. Marino:** That's what I thought you'd say.

> **Dr. █████:** [ _Over PA_ _, in English_ ] Try introducing yourself.

> **Dr. Marino:** This file says you've been identified as... Nico di Angelo, from Italy. I'm Dr. Maria Marino. I'm a scientist. These people sent me to confirm that that's you. If you do that for me, I'll leave you alone. That is literally my only objective.

> [ _Subject appears confused._ ]

> **Dr. Marino:**  Do you understand me?

> **SCP-3229-C:** Did you say your name is "Maria Marino?"

> **Dr. Marino:** Yes.

> **SCP-3229-C:** Ouch.

> [ _Dr. Marino pauses to write note: "Subject speaks. He only speaks to deliver an insult, but he speaks._ _"_ ]

> **Dr. Marino:** Why haven't you spoken to Foundation staff until now?

> **SCP-3229-C:** I still wouldn't be speaking to your staff if you hadn't suprised me. Maria was my mother's name. Though your last name makes it sound stupid.
> 
> [ _Maria di Angelo is marked as SCP-3229-C's mother on its birth certificate. Dr. Marino was aware of this at the time of interview._ ]
> 
> **Dr. Marino:** So you confirm that your name is Nico di Angelo.
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** Yes.
> 
> **Dr. Marino:**  Any particular reason why you were born in 1929, but appear to be an adolescent?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** It's been eight days, so I would assume either Percy or Annabeth already told you.
> 
> [ _Dr. Marino consults her files._ ]
> 
> **Dr. Marino:** Says here you were trapped in a temporal anomaly and were only freed recently. Is that right?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:**  It's right.
> 
> **Dr. Marino:**  How can you tell how long you've been contained? There isn't exactly a clock in your cell.
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** I just know the day-night cycle. The shadows get darker when it's nighttime, if that makes sense.
> 
> **Dr. Marino:** Right. What can you tell me about your friends' conditions?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:** You haven't killed them yet.
> 
> **Dr. Marino:** That isn't what I meant, but now I'm curious. How did you know that?
> 
> **SCP-3229-C:**  I just know this stuff.
> 
> **< End Log>**
> 
> **Closing statement:** Research on SCP-3229-C's properties is ongoing.

**Footnotes**

  1. A type of straightsword used by the ancient Greeks



* * *

  **You have one (1) new email.**

> **FROM:**  Doctor Robert Chen <rchen@scp.foundation>
> 
>  **TO:** Doctor Maria Marino  <mmarino@scp.foundation>
> 
>  **SUBJECT:** Humanoid Transfer From SoHo Site
> 
> * * *
> 
> Maria, I get where you're coming from, but no.

> Site-28 is practically an art warehouse, so I understand why it's not ideal humanoid containment. I would not trust most of the people at that Site with an egg.

> I would happily let you transfer 3229 to my Site, but our last containment breach was less than a week ago. Several cells were demolished and we're barely containing the SCPs we already have, much less accepting more.

> I wish I could say that this doesn't happen often.

> I'm also concerned about A's claim that it's related to Poseidon. If these anomalies are related to Hellenistic mythology, then I don't want to know what'll happen if they come into contact with the guy who says he's [God](http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-343).

> If you're really itching to get 3229 out of there: send them to [the Gulf site](http://www.scp-wiki.net/secure-facility-dossier-site-88). They house humanoids just as well as we do, and they're far less likely to explode at any given time.

> If you think they're more dangerous than they're letting on, maybe you can kick them to Site-17. It's entirely possible that you're missing something - SoHo doesn't have the resources to test a lot of the things you're looking for.

> Let me know when you make a decision.

* * *

**ALERT.**

**SCP-3229-C HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT.**

**THIS IS NOT A DRILL.**

**ALERT.**

**SCP-3229-B HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT.**

**THIS IS NOT A DRILL.**


	2. The Pizza Delivery Song From Spider-Man Plays Very Loudly And Urgently For An Entire Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> these chapters alternate between in-universe documents and prose, jsyk.

Nico had a little wiggle room in the cuff on his left ankle, and in a fit of ADHD he used this to tap out the rhythm of a song he half-remembered.

He wouldn't call this his _worst_ day. As somebody who had to deal with a sister who died young, a trip to hell, and an attack from a literal god in rapid succession, he'd had much worse days. But getting kidnapped by  _mortals_ was quite high on the what-the-fuck-ometer.

Not the worst prison he'd been trapped in by far. At least this one was ventilated.

They took his bomber jacket, though. Damn it. He just got that thing. They probably burned it.

A little over a week (twenty-four mushy meals and eight rotations of the shadows) earlier he was sitting in this exact chair (probably. He couldn't tell, but he was pretty sure they only had one interview room) flanked by two guys with guns, listening to Dr. What's-his-name tell him that the Special Containment Procedures Foundation was here to study his preternatural properties and develop new scientific theories based upon them. Nico knew this was a lie.

He held his powers close to his chest.

Nico didn't have a shortage of corpses. Nah, there were plenty of (shockingly fresh; what kind of research facility was this?) dead people in this building - he just couldn't summon skeletons because he wasn't on the ground floor. He _could_  try, but then the two muscle men flanking him would shoot him dead before the undead calvary ever showed up.

Shadow travelling everyone out was his best bet - if he could do it quickly enough to not get shot. Three jumps in rapid succession.

One guard uncuffed him and made him stand. Time to get out of here.

So he'd spent the majority of the week staying quiet and waiting for the Foundation to let their guard down. If he didn't seem dangerous, they wouldn't treat him like he was. Especially with the apparent lack of resources in this building. Employees scooted by the armed guards as they led him down the hall, whispering about where they were getting food and what site they could transfer to. A few of those employees were wearing pizza delivery uniforms, a fact he mentally filed away.

But, yeah. A lot of waiting. Almost too much.

At this point Percy would have to be bouncing off the walls. Their usual dealings were with monsters, which weren't so organized, but Percy would try and barrel them down the same way. Also, Ms. Jackson was AWOL as of the fight in Montauk, where the Foundation snatched them. She could be in Foundation custody, or maybe she'd eluded them somehow. Last Nico had seen her, she was climbing over a chain link fence labeled "KEEP OUT" as the four tranquilizer darts in his back started eating holes in his vision. There was no way Percy wasn't flipping his shit.

He was in his cell again. They took the cuffs and the leg irons off.

Annabeth was probably holding up. She would understand the severity of the situation and try to plan for the long run. Nico had tried contacting her via dream magic, but there was a barrier somehow, something like a mesh between himself and the people he wanted to contact. He tried sending her a simple dream explaining what he was doing. In response, he'd gotten about five minutes of spiders crawling around a blank white room, ten minutes of leaves waving back and forth in the wind, and thirty seconds of the leaves suddenly changing into human hands, all going limp except one, which gave him a thumbs up.

So he guessed that was Annabeth's green light.

Nico sat on the cot and stared at the camera in the top corner of the room as the guards left. It swiveled gently, bringing the walls into its view, but constantly staying focused on where he was seated. Not that it mattered.

Five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes after the guards left the room, Nico was confident they were too far away to come charging back in.

Nico glanced under the cot. The cell was very brightly lit, but they didn't bother with the shadow cast by the cot. They didn't know they should.

He crawled underneath and disappeared.

* * *

Nico hit his head on the bottom of a cot.

For a moment, he thought he'd somehow traveled back into his own cell. But that couldn't be right.

He looked out and saw a pair of jumpsuit-clad legs and laceless shoes, their owner sitting on the edge of the bed. "Annabeth, is that you? It's Nico."

Annabeth's leg jumped, before stilling. "I'm not going to look at you," she whispered. "If I look, we'll get caught. Just take my leg and pull us out fast. Make it look like an accident."

Nico grabbed Annabeth's ankle and dropped them both into darkness.

They both landed on their faces. Shadow travel could be horribly disorienting while upright, much less lying on his stomach and dragging someone else by the foot. Nico was mindful to get up slowly, because after two jumps the ground started to feel like it was swaying. He got to his knees and tried to focus his eyes. Alarms blared in his ears. There wasn't much time.

"Percy," he said hoarsely. "Percy, where are you?"

There was a faint clinking sound. Nico supported himself with a nearby desk. He was in an interview room - and on the wrong side of the plexiglass, there was Percy, chained to his chair. "Nico!" Percy screamed, muffled by the ten-inch thick plexi between them. He thrashed in the restraints and yelled something indistinct.

Nico hit the microphone connecting the two sides of the room. It was almost definitely recorded, but at this point the Foundation had already noticed the security breach. He could hear jackboots hitting the ground outside. "Percy, we're going to get you out of there! Just hang tight!"

Annabeth picked up the chair on their side of the plexi (which unlike Percy's, wasn't bolted to the floor) and whacked the separator as hard as she could. The chair was down one leg but the plexi wasn't damaged. Nico tried the door, but all doors in the building had auto-locked.

Nico grabbed Annabeth by the shirt and shadow traveled again, putting them on the other end of the plexi. He took the restraints with greatly weakened hands and yanked as hard as he could, but brute force didn't solve the problem. Fighting back the urge to vomit, he summoned every dead body in the facility to him. Screams rang out from the basement as the deceased spontaneously reanimated and attacked.

Everything spun. Even though they were on the right side of the room, Percy's words didn't cohere until it was too late.

"Please, just run! They're already here!"

Some of the shadows in the corner of the room weren't shadows. The outlines of black-clad soldiers. Guns raised. Pointed at them. Five, no, ten, no, thirty as the door slid open.

Nico grabbed Percy and Annabeth's elbows, prayed to his father, and went into the shadows.

He materialized on somebody's laminate floor, a family screaming as the three demigods collapsed on the ground. Hades must have been in his favor. Percy had been shadow travelled right out of the restraints.

"Sorry!" he shouted. He had no clue how the Mist would cover this one up.

Percy and Annabeth dragged Nico out of the apartment and into an elevator - more literally than he would like. His whole body felt like pudding. "Nico, they're gonna call the cops," Annabeth chided, hitting the button for the ground floor.

Nico wheezed. His fingers were see-through, but he'd worry about that later. "At least... we're out of that prison. We're not completely helpless right now." Now that they were out of the facility, they could run back to Camp Half-Blood for backup. He hoped one of them had figured out how to smuggle in some money, because hailing a cab would be prudent right now.

"You're fading," Percy said.

"It's nothing," Nico said, but it wasn't nothing. His organs felt like pulp. They probably _were_ pulp.

Annabeth glanced at Nico momentarily, then did a double take as she realized that apparently, he looked like shit. "You need a hospital."

"No shit," Nico grumbled. "Maybe we should go back and use the Foundation's. They've got to have a good one."

Percy sighed. "Jokes aside, what now?"

They were all quiet. This situation was, without a doubt, unbelievably bad. In fact, if he wasn't already here, Nico would've expected to swoop in and save them right about now.

"Let's start with getting out of this elevator," Annabeth said, unzipping her jumpsuit. "We can't walk into somebody's business wearing obvious prison jumpsuits and expect not to get tackled. At the very least, unzip the top and fold it down, like this, so nobody can see the numbers." She tied the sleeves of the jumpsuit around her waist, exposing the white shirt under it. The shirt wasn't branded. It looked like Annabeth just had really bad taste in hoodies and sweatpants.

As Percy followed her lead, Nico stared at the elevator doors contemplatively. Why was this thing so slow? "I can jump one more time."

Percy looked uncomfortable with the notion. "Dude, just rest. We've got it."

"I'm serious. If I were dying right now, I'd know it." He probably was, but they had medicine at home.

"Your legs are shaking."

"I'm fine."

"If you're fine, why aren't you unzipping your jumpsuit?"

Because Nico was already really, really cold. "I don't want to."

Annabeth was still brainstorming a plan. "Okay: our first priority is to get money. Then we can use a payphone. I know for a fact that 'Half-Blood Strawberry Farm' has a phone number, so we can call that."

"We'll just need a quarter," Percy said, already moving on. "Maybe we can come up with a sob story and somebody will toss us one. With the state Nico's in, that'll be easy."

Annabeth put Nico's arm around her shoulder. He blinked rapidly and rested some weight on her. "I don't know how long it'll take for them to come," she said.

"I think they can call the Grey Sisters for us."

"Oh. Oh yeah, that'll do it."

Nico looked up at the elevator floor number, starting to approach G. He was regretting leaning on Annabeth. It was getting hard to lift his head.

The door finally opened, and-

and Nico was face-to-face with a skeleton holding a pizza.

"...Oh, fuck," Annabeth said, realizing.

"OH FUCK," Percy said, mashing the "close door" button.

Annabeth picked Nico up and pointed at the skeleton. "Hey! You're on our side, right? Help us out here!"

The skeleton took one slice of pizza, stuck it in its bony jaws, and gave Annabeth a thumbs up.

"Come on!" she shouted over her shoulder. Percy tailed her, looking horribly confused. But Nico knew what was up. He didn't travel far enough. They never left the building.

The ground floor of the Foundation facility was in chaos.

The sign in front of the counter (Spicy Crust Pizzeria) was ripped in half and thrown on the floor. Corpses in orange jumpsuits tore ass out of the stairwell, bull-rushing the undercover Foundation staff, who were firing at the undead army with formerly concealed tranquilizer guns. The storefront was closed but terrified mortals were still cowering under the tables.

At the pizza skeleton's command, the dead surrounded the three of them, forming a protective barrier between themselves and the carnage.

Percy jumped on the both of them, and before Nico could process why Percy's body became dead weight, dispatched by potent paralytics in his back and arms. The same attack had no effect on the dead army, since they couldn't circulate the drugs. Instead, the Foundation brute-forced their way through them, destroying their skulls with guns, knives, rolling pins.

Percy was forcibly dragged off of them. Nico's brain was skipping seconds, maybe minutes at a time.

A single shot. He didn't know why. He could hear it embedding itself in the wall behind him as lead tore through his leg, his gut, and Annabeth's arm, the lone bullet leaving three gaping red holes.

Nico screamed, and before he could barf on his girlfriend's open wound right in front of him, left Percy behind.

His eyes went to a blur of green and yellow as he choked on bile, and then black.

* * *

Beige shapes. Cold, sterile air. A steady beep, beep, beep.

Nico was alive. Somehow.

He couldn't feel his fingers. He flapped his arm weakly, trying to alert somebody he was awake without opening his eyes. His eyelids felt crusted shut.

"Will. Will, he's awake!"

A warm hand took his. "Nico. Hey. Do you feel ready to take the oxygen mask off?"

He didn't even realize he was wearing one. He made a shaky OK sign with his free hand. Will lowered the mask gently. "Where's Annabeth?" Nico rasped.

"Annabeth caught a bullet in her arm. She's not gonna have any permanent damage, and she's already up and running again. Can you open your eyes for me?"

Nico slowly opened one eye, then shut it again. "Light hurts."

"Considering how far gone you were, I'm not surprised. Annabeth says you shadow traveled five times in a row and summoned skeletons within thirty minutes. I'm surprised you aren't feeling worse."

"How long was I asleep?"

"Four days." Will stroked his hair. It felt like the sun was shining on his head. "Annabeth told Chiron everything. They're doing everything they can for Percy."

Nico swallowed hard. "He didn't make it out?"

"Not yet. But they're working on it."

So Percy was alive. Or at least, they thought he was alive. Nico turned away. "I did this."

"No, you didn't. Those crazy-ass scientists did this."

"I'm the reason why we left Percy," Nico insisted. "I couldn't focus on shadow travelling to the right place. I missed twice."

"Nico, listen. We have people scouting out the city block Spicy Crust Pizzeria is on. Something's wrong with that area. The Mist is haywire and nobody's powers work right. Your travelling was actually incredibly accurate for the situation." Will's voice wavered, unsure.

Nico blinked his eyes open and squinted at the yellow and brown blur of his boyfriend's face. "What do you mean?"

"They think something inside the building is jamming us somehow? I'm not aware of the details, but the Hecate kids say it's like - it feels heavy, for some reason? 'Like an anchor' was their exact words." Will paused. "Listen, you almost faded completely. We treated two wounds. The hole in your leg is mostly healed, but you're down one kidney. ...Are you okay?"

No. He was beating the hell out of himself. "I-" He went into a fit of coughing. Will pressed the oxygen mask back over his nose.

"Don't hurt yourself."

Nico brought the mask back down as soon as he could take a breath. "The people who took Percy call themselves the SCP Foundation. They own the pizzeria and probably the basement. Above the pizzeria is an apartment complex; the Foundation owns a chunk of it, but some of the apartments have normal people in them. I know they have at least one other base of operations-"

Will put the oxygen mask back as Nico's voice dwindled into a wheezy whisper. "There's a time and a place for this, Neeks. You've done all you can do. Rest."

Nico couldn't. Percy Jackson was missing. Everyone in camp was in danger. And it was all his fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while will basically sits on nico to make him stay on bed rest, we're going to go back to the foundation to see how percy is handling things (poorly) and get to know the enemy


	3. Iteration 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> update on percy, who is having some unfortunate side effects

**As of 6/24/20██, this article has been revised.**

**Item #:** SCP-3229

 **Object Class:** Euclid [PENDING RECLASSIFICATION]

 **Special Containment Procedures:** SCP-3229-01 is contained within a Type S Humanoid Containment Cell in Site-28. SCP-3229-01's cell is modified to restrict water supply; the subject must be sedated and restrained before being exposed to liquid water. SCP-3229-01 cannot wear clothing with pockets. Reinforcement of containment with anti-thaumaturgic constructs is underway.

Testing of the subject's anomalous properties are to be supervised by Dr. Marino. Weekly interviews to determine the psychological condition of SCP-3229-01 are to be conducted.

SCP-3229-02 and SCP-3229-03 are presently uncontained. Containment efforts are ongoing.

The SCP-3229 population is believed to be much larger than anticipated. █.█% of D-Class personnel are estimated to be instances of SCP-3229 or have otherwise come into contact with an instance.

Contingencies regarding future containment are pending review by the Ethics Committee.

 **Description:** SCP-3229 designates a group of humanoids displaying a specific pattern of deviations from baseline humanity. These deviations are accompanied by a number of abnormal, but non-anomalous characteristics. The most common deviations include:

  * Behavioral patterns consistent with ADHD and dyslexia.
  * Resistance to SCP-3229-A; see below.
  * Familiarity with certain dialects of Ancient Greek. This has been observed in both confirmed and suspected instances, including D-Class personnel who previously had no exposure to Ancient Greek.
  * Aversion to electronic devices, cell phones in particular.
  * Abnormal reactions to SCP-3229-B and SCP-3229-C; see below.
  * Instances may be familiar with Hellenic polytheism, sometimes going so far as to claim relation to Hellenic deities.
  * An apparent lack of one or more biological parents in documentation and the instance's personal life.



 Note that while all recorded instances displayed these characteristics, additional anomalous and thaumaturgic properties may be present and vary between individual instances.

SCP-3229-A is a mild cognitohazardous effect that surrounds an instance of SCP-3229. This effect alters all anomalous activity to be perceived as an action within the parameters of non-anomalous activity, and has been referred to as a "mist" by SCP-3229. A number of Foundation personnel are immune to the effect, believed to be a result of past/present mnestic use.

SCP-3229-B is a substance recovered by Agent Mark Roland from a cabin inhabited by SCP-3229 instances in Montauk, New York. SCP-3229-B is three bags of yellow cubes marked "AMBROSIA." Each bag is attached to a hand-written label[1], believed to have been penned by SCP-3229-01.

SCP-3229-B causes spontaneous combustion in 9█.█% of D-Class personnel.

SCP-3229-C is a collection of swords composed of anomalous metal that is currently pending description. All known instances of SCP-3229-C have been sent to Kiryu Labs for testing.

Three instances of SCP-3229 have been taken into Foundation custody and of these, only one remains in containment. See Incident Report 3229 for more detail.

**Addendum-01:**

Known instances of SCP-3229 are as follows:

**Incident Report 3229:** On 6/23/20██, SCP-3229-03 initiated a containment breach utilizing previously unseen abilities.

At 19:42 EDT, the subject crawled under its cot, removing itself from the security system's line of sight. When asked to step back into the line of sight via PA system, it did not respond. Shortly after, SCP-3229-02 displayed abnormal behavior while in its cell. It appeared startled, began speaking indistinctly to an unknown conversant, and disappeared. Video playback reveals an unidentified hand reached out to grasp SCP-3229-02's ankle seconds before both disappeared. A containment breach was declared and Site-28 went into lockdown.

SCP-3229-02 and SCP-3229-03 reappeared in Interview Room 7, where SCP-3229-01 was being held at the time of the breach. Armed Foundation operatives were present in the interview room, but did not successfully recapture the instances.

At roughly the same time, D-Class corpses pending incineration in the basement reanimated and attacked Foundation personnel. This event was evidently initiated by SCP-3229.

SCP-3229-01 was freed, and all instances then teleported to a civilian apartment within Site-28's apartment building complex. They then attempted to exit the building via the Spicy Crust Pizzeria on the ground floor, as the reanimated corpses provided cover.

SCP-3229-01 was shot with tranquilizer darts and separated from the group. Personnel prepared to do the same to both other instances, but were interrupted. A civilian officer was trapped in the pizzeria during the lockdown, and opened fire on the group of reanimated corpses. SCP-3229-02 and SCP-3229-03 were wounded by the attack, and vanished.

All corpses returned to a non-anomalous state. SCP-3229-02 and SCP-3229-03 could not be located. SCP-3229-01 was recontained.

1\. Each label reads: "For emergenceis [sic] only. Do not give to mortals, EVER."

* * *

Percy was unceremoniously dumped back on his cot.

He couldn't get up. He couldn't even open his eyes, courtesy of the paralyzing darts that were getting pulled out of his back. Even more frustrating was the couple of Foundation grunts who had dragged him back to the cell.

Mark Roland, the man who had pretended to be an innocent, clear-sighted accountant and then stabbed him in the back - figuratively _and_ literally. And that creepy scientist who kept calling him an "it" over the intercom. Fuck him too. Percy couldn't even bother learning his name.

Mark and Dr. Creepy were having some kind of argument, punctuated by jags of pain and the clink of the tiny darts being dropped into a metal bucket. Dr. Creepy had a rasping voice that Percy had initially mistaken for an error in the electronic speakers. "Have we made any progress with B and C?"

Clink.

Mark was, as ever, very distant-sounding, like he was thinking of something else. "No. Also, Maria re-designated the anomalies. They're numbers now. So this one's 'one,' and the escaped ones are 'two' and 'three.'"

Clink.

The paralytics left Percy immobile, not unaware. His throat was raw from days of limited water. His back and arms felt like they were on fire. The skin there felt tight, like the area had swelled up, but he couldn't look to confirm. It had to be a reaction to the drugs. He didn't react to the tranquilizers this way. Or perhaps he was asleep so long he missed the entire reaction? Time was difficult in this place.

Clink.

Feeling the two strangers put their greasy hands all over his back made him want to scream. Or kick. Or do  _something_ other than lie on his face.

Clink.

"Maria should leave well enough alone. My write-up was perfectly good."

Clink.

"She took the liberty of reviewing your research. You know that yellow stuff you gave to all those D-Class? She's thinking the ones that didn't combust are anomalous."

Clink.

"Come on, Mark. Humanoid anomalies aren't even her field."

Clink.

"Maria, A, is a psychologist, and B, spent about a month on a planet of beetle-parasitized Dutchmen. If anybody here's qualified to talk about humanoids, it's her. What's your progress on finding the family?"

Clink. Percy's breath hitched.

"No luck. The Jackson woman's still at large. We managed to contact the Chases last week, but B, or two, or whatever we're calling it must have warned them because they're not answering their phone."

Clink. Percy exhaled weakly.

He still had no idea where his mother was but at least they didn't kill her or worse. Annabeth and Nico were... what? Recaptured? Back at camp? "Making progress" was a painfully vague statement. For all he knew, Dr. Creepy could be talking about dissecting their corpses. But no, don't think about that, think of something more important. Like moving.

Move. Move. Move. Please move.

Clink.

"I think that's it," Mark said.

Dr. Creepy chuckled and patted Percy's butt. He  _really_ wished he could move right now.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Dave," Mark snapped.

"What? C'mon, it's asleep. Fair game."

 _Ah._ That's why they were spilling their guts in front of him. They must have hit him with the wrong darts.

"Dave, you need to give me  _one_ concrete reason to not beat the shit out of you."

"Maybe someday," Dr. Creepy said.

And the cell door slammed behind them.

Percy lay on his face for a very long time. Tears prickled behind his eyelids, but by the time the drugs wore off enough to blink them away, he'd been crying for about an hour.

He rolled onto his side. His muscles were still fickle, but he could kind of face the wall to get more air. When he finally had the coordination, he sat up, unzipped the jumpsuit and removed his shirt. He reached behind himself to assess the damage and winced. Hives? Ow, ow, okay maybe don't touch them. Percy whimpered. He didn't want to be sobbing in front of the security cameras. But the pain and the events of the past week were all starting to hit him at once.

Percy lifted a tear off his face, the water droplet hovering in the air above his lap. The droplet was shaking. So was Percy's hand. In the past few days, his powers had gotten increasingly hard to control. He wasn't sure what they did to him, but it was something scientists, especially not mortal scientists should be capable of.

He picked up some more teardrops. And some water vapor, for good measure. His hands were shaking harder now. A small orb formed.

The intercom buzzed to life.

"SCP-3229-01, please put the water down," said a female scientist he didn't recognize.

Percy popped the orb of water into his mouth and swallowed it.

"That is acceptable, too," the intercom scientist continued. "Why are you undressed?"

"...Hurts," Percy mumbled. He laid on his side, pulling his knees to his chest.

"I can look at that if you want."

Percy stayed silent.

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can he-ar you!" His voice cracked pitifully halfway through the statement.

"...Given the situation, someone will end up examining your wounds eventually, whether you like it or not. I'd rather do so with your consent, without chemical or physical restraints-" A second voice protested to her about procedure, some distance from the mic. "-Winger, it can barely lift a drop," she whispered, not realizing he could still hear her, then said, more clearly:"The offer still stands, Percy."

Percy's train of thought chugged on by. He didn't like this woman. Thus far, she'd called him an "it" behind his back, then turned around and said his real name. He was pretty sure that was the Foundation's form of flattery.

But, exhausted, he recalled the last time he was drugged and trussed up for a medical exam. Held immobile under bright lights. Forced to drink something that tasted like orange juice with way too much sugar. Unable to properly swallow it because the drugs they already put in him made his jaw too loose. "Fine."

Some indeterminate time later, a woman in a lab coat stepped into his cell, accompanied by a guard. She had a prominent nose, many facial blemishes, and her hair pinwheeled loosely from a bun, straining to get free. "Hello, Percy, I'm Dr. Marino. If you could lie on your stomach for me, that would be helpful."

Percy sighed and did so. He'd done way too much lying on his stomach today.

Dr. Marino poked and prodded him for a while. There was a lot of "does this hurt" and "does that hurt." But somehow the conversation went from that to "have you been having unusual dreams" and "how would you say you're adjusting to your situation."

Finally, Dr. Marino came to a verdict. "You're having an allergic reaction to the drugs. I'll procure some antihistamines, and the containment staff will give you that with your next meal. Any questions before I leave?"

"I want to go home," Percy grumbled.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Meaning, "no, never," he thought as the door slammed again.

Now he had to come up with another plan.


	4. A Vote For The Reader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short chapter, i know, but i'm a little low on steam rn

"Does anyone have an  _actual_ plan?" Annabeth demanded distantly.

Nico's legs refused to cooperate for a while. An infuriatingly long while. Luckily, the infirmary had a wheelchair, and even though Nico wasn't supposed to, he dragged himself onto it and trundled into the rec room, where he could hear Annabeth shouting over a commotion and whacking a whiteboard with that plastic hand-on-a-stick Percy gave her for her birthday.

The rec room was full to the brim with panicked camp counselors. Nico grunted as the chair rolled over the threshold, a sound which only Jason detected. "Nico! What are you doing out of bed?"

"If this is an official camp meeting, I need to be here. I'm just as much a counselor as you are." Nico wheeled himself closer to the whiteboard. "Hey, Annabeth."

Annabeth looked terrible. Her hair was more of a mess than usual and her arm was in a sling. "Nico. Good, you saved me the trouble of waking you up. I've got some questions about your dream powers. Do you have any information on the Foundation that we don't?"

Nico looked up at what was scribbled on the board.

**"secure contain protect" - hoard magic items. will keep items @ any cost**

**undercover agents. can look like anything. use caution**

**soho is site 28. @ at least 27 other sites**

**SERPENT'S HAND - enemy of scp. mysterious**

"What's 'Serpent's Hand?'" Nico asked.

Annabeth sighed. "I don't know either. The doctors just asked if I was a member of it. I don't know why they thought I was, but from what I overheard, they're a group that attacked the Foundation a couple of times. The Hephaestus kids should tell us more."

Leo raised his hand from a stool in the corner of the rec room, balancing Daedalus's laptop on his knee. He was wearing a pair of thick, pink-glassed, heart-shaped spectacles on his nose. "What up!"

"Leo, how's it looking?"

"It's slow. I may be a special boy, but hacking's not my strong suit." He pushed up the ridiculous glasses. "Jake would be better."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Didn't Jake get dragged into the infirmary a minute ago?"

"Yeah. When he started digging into Foundation files, there was a popup of some abstract art thing. Jake was staring at it trying to figure out why it was there, and then bam! Blood vomit. Now I gotta wear magic glasses so those little doodles won't kill me."

"What do you have on the Serpent's Hand?" Annabeth demanded.

Leo scoffed. "Not much. I'm looking at low-clearance file. Uh... 'embraces use of p-paranormal items... embraces hhhumanoid and sapient SCP objects," he read tentatively. "A bunch of black boxes here. 'Discovery of the Wanderer's Library, an - an extra - extradimenshhh... a fucking weird place accessed through portals all over the world. The Serpent's Hand is based from this location.'"

"That's why they thought we were in the Serpent's Hand," Annabeth realized. "Portals all over the world. That sounds like the Labyrinth."

"There's something else." Leo tapped the keyboard. "I checked Daedalus's gmail account. Yeah, I know," he added when everyone looked at him, wondering whether he was joking. "A thousand-year old inventor using gmail. That was my reaction, too. But there's a point to this. Some guy named Bumaro keeps emailing Daedalus. He knows about the Foundation, too. Keeps saying they've got the 'heart of god' and wants some advice on how to proceed. Should I... answer?"

Nico frowned. "Can we see that?"

"Uh, yeah, I closed out of the Foundation windows." Leo came over and showed them.

Nico already had a headache, and the letters in the email jumped around persistently. "Ah. Yes. I see."

Annabeth didn't seem to understand either. "I'll just read that later. But let's add it to the board."

**BUMARO - possible ally.**

"Anyone else?" she asked. "Has  _anyone else_ heard of the Foundation?"

There was a deafening silence, punctuated by a snore from the back of the room.

Somebody smacked the offending snorer, waking him up. "Clovis? You awake back there?" Annabeth shouted over a couple of heads.

Clovis's narcolepsy often made people think he was useless, but Nico knew the power of dream travel. While a little tricky and surreal, it was undoubtedly the most secure way to spy on people. The information never entered physical form, therefore it was untracable. "Huh? What?"

"Clovis. SCP Foundation. Do you know anything?"

"Found... fou - of course!" He blinked. "Of course, we hear about them sometimes, from Oneiroi. They can help you send a message."

**ONEIROI - greek. not very helpful, but definitely on our side**

Okay. They had three distinct options. How would they proceed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE:
> 
> How the gang will proceed depends on which option you vote for.
> 
> CONTACT THE SERPENT'S HAND. The Serpent's Hand is a loosely-knit group of wizards and monsters who have access to the Wanderer's Library, an infinite library in another dimension. Pros: they dislike the Foundation on principle and often break out SCPs for the sake of breaking out SCPs. Cons: the Wanderer's Library runs on some very ancient rules that are easy to break and strictly enforced.
> 
> CONTACT ROBERT BUMARO. Bumaro is the head of the Church of the Broken God, a group that collects mechanical magic items in hopes of reassembling their mechanical god. They were formerly affiliated with Daedalus. Pros: the church has a lot of power, and Camp Half-Blood has a bargaining chip in the form of the Hephaestus kids, who could help them reassemble their god. Cons: they would only give grudging assistance, as they have little interest in non-believers. Plus, nobody knows what'll happen if they fix their god.
> 
> CONTACT ONEIROI WEST. Oneiroi West is a collective of dream people. They have a very tight control of dreams and are capable of contacting even the most isolated entities. Pros: they can get over the communication roadblock, restoring Nico's ability to contact Percy through dreams. Cons: they charge a steep price for this service, and they won't be able to help in any other way because they only exist in dreams.
> 
> Vote now on your phones~


	5. Experiment Log 3229

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what do you do when you find something weird? you poke it with a stick. or in the foundation's case, a death row prisoner.

**Addendum-02:** Experiment Log 3229-B

 

**3229-B Trial #1**

**Subject:** D-94471, a 22 year old male.

 **Dosage:**  1 cube

 **Result:** Subject's core temperature rose over the course of approximately five minutes before spontaneously combusting, leaving only a pile of ash. The subject did not recover.

 

**3229-B Trial #2**

**Subject:** SCP-3229-01. The subject had hives on its back due to an allergic reaction to tranquilizers.

 **Dosage:** 1 cube

 **Result:**   ~~No effect.~~  Upon closer examination, subject's hives disappeared. Subject stated that the substance tasted "like cookies."

 **Notes:** _The more cooperative instances never discussed this "ambrosia,"_ _but it seems to be a healing accelerant. Asking 3229-01 about it didn't get me much other than an angry glare. I'd like to figure out how it's meant to be used. Having a healing substance on hand would do a world of good for our agents. -Dr. █████_

 

**3229-B Trial #3**

**Subject:** D-94660, a 56 year old female. The subject was given a shallow cut on the arm before testing.

 **Dosage:** 1 cube

 **Result:**  Identical to Trial #1.

 

 

**3229-B Trial #6**

**Subject:** D-94670, a 34 year old female. The subject's arm was broken beforehand in an unrelated incident.

 **Dosage:** 1/4 cube

 **Result:** Identical to Trial #1.

 **Notes:**   _We've tried diluting it, lowering the dosage, even smearing it right on the wound, and all it does is set our D-class on fire! I wouldn't even be testing this stuff if there wasn't a required minimum. -Dr. █████_

 

**3229-B Trial #14**

**Subject:** D-94761, a 20 year old female. The subject was given a shallow cut on the arm before testing.

 **Dosage:**  1 cube diluted in water

 **Result:** The flesh wound healed rapidly over the course of five minutes. No change in core temperature was observed. Subject survived testing and is under observation.

 **Notes:**   _Dave_ _was unable to figure out why this one survived as opposed to the other twenty-odd D-class and dismissed it as a fluke. However, after delving into D-94761's records, I have found a history of dyslexia, ADHD, and absentee parents. That seems consistent with properties of SCP-3229. I think this needs further testing. -Dr. Marino_

 

**3229-B Trial #43**

**Subject:** D-94855, a 28 year old male with a history of ADHD. The subject was shot in the leg before testing.

 **Dosage:**  3 cubes

 **Result:** The gunshot wound healed rapidly over the course of an hour. The subject's core temperature rose to 40°C before dropping to normal range. Subject survived testing and is under observation.

 **Notes:**   _Studying the results, it appears that 3229 instances trend young. Examining the histories of the instances has given us insight as to why - they're prone to being hunted by other, typically Greek-themed anomalies. Hopefully the SRA is enough to keep those anomalies off us, but I'm still anxious to get them to a more secure site. -Dr. Marino_

* * *

 

 **Addendum-03:**  Experiment Log 3229-01

Experimentation is ongoing.

* * *

Researcher Marino stood over the restraint table. SCP-3229-01 stared back. It was muzzled, but it was probably scowling.

The anomaly had been scowling constantly since she'd arrived in SoHo, like it was trying to burn holes in her with two green lasers. Roland said he'd seen it smile. Marino wasn't sure if she believed him.

Four very large men with tranquilizer guns stood to the side. Foundation policy frowned on deadly force, but Site-28 staff was antsy. They lost no less than five field containment officers in Montauk, and ten more were still in the hospital. To be fair, they didn't know about its hydrokinetic properties until they were already standing on the beach.

Junior Researcher Francisco Winger, also there, was young, inexperienced, and could easily pass as a high schooler. Apparently that college outreach program was working. Marino didn't know exactly why that program was implemented, but she had a feeling that only college students could be stupid enough to join the Foundation at this point.

Marino pressed a button on the tape recorder. "Maria Marino. Biological sample extraction of SCP-3229-01. I am taking blood and bone marrow from the subject. Strong anesthetic, general or local, will be withheld pending investigation of the subject's reactions to such medication. Junior Researcher Winger is observing."

Its eyes tracked her across the room, pupils constricted. The beeping on the heart monitor picked up. Stress response.

The blood didn't make Marino nervous. Taking blood wasn't so painful. As red flashed into the syringe, Winger spoke up. "Isn't Dave s-supposed to do this?"

"I asked for this procedure. Dave said he'd be in the break room. Good riddance, if you ask me," she said, flicking the tube of blood. She frowned. "...Let the record show that the blood sample is vibrating. Winger, take this to the lab."

Winger recoiled. "Shouldn't we t-tranquilize the subject?" The very large men raised their tranquilizer guns in question.

"It could be an effect of another nearby anomaly. Just remove the sample."

Winger scuttled down to the lab with the blood sample. Just as well. He might not have reacted to this next part very well.

The reddish-brown iodine was wiped on the anomaly's bare chest, which was rising and falling with increasing speed.

"Hold still," Marino said calmly, taking out the syringe. "Or this will break off in your chest."

The anomaly's pupils went to pinpricks.

The needle pushed into its sternum.

It let out a muffled scream, thrashing against the restraints and the very large men pinning it down. Marino felt an uncomfortable tug in her gut -- something she attributed to stress before realizing it was a physical tug. Or, rather, a push.

She tried to extract the bone marrow, but the action made it fight harder. A blow to the stomach put Marino flat on her ass. She looked up to see how the anomaly had gotten loose. It hadn't. All four limbs were still bolted to the table.

A line of blood trickled from her nose. "Maria, you okay?" one of the very large men asked.

Marino wiped the blood away. "Tranquilize it!"

She stumbled into the hallway, glancing once over her shoulder to meet the anomaly's eyes.

She saw no anger. Just fear.

God  _damn._

She would have so much paperwork to do.

* * *

Marino scooped ice into a ziploc bag and held it to her stomach as Roland looked on. "Dave missed out on the fun," she said. "We learned something today. 3229-01 can control the water in blood. It managed to punch me with that ability."

Roland ate his sandwich, calm and judgemental as a grazing cow. "You have a strange idea of fun."

"Don't be an ass, Mark. We're lucky we caught this in time. This property is a containment breach in the making."

Roland swallowed the sandwich hard.

The gears turned in Marino's head. "Is Montauk still bothering you?"

Mark Roland had been on top of 3229 from the beginning. He'd been undercover, pretending to be a normal man, pretending to befriend three atom bombs of abnormality pretending to be teenagers. Marino couldn't imagine it. At least on [SCP-3003](http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3003) she could tell the inhabitants weren't  _normal._ Ostensibly they were human, but it was easy to think of them as SCPs when they were walking around with parasitic insects bulging from their arms, necks, faces. Talking was rarely done unless it either served a purpose or was dedicated to the worship of the parasites.

But 3229-01 was visually and behaviorally normal. It just happened to have acute control of water.

Roland shrugged. "...I'm thinking about going through [redaction therapy](http://www.scp-wiki.net/amnestic-orientation-manual) again."

"Again? That can't be good for you."

"I have kids, Maria. I don't know how you stand it. _I_ sit in my apartment and I hear what definitely sounds like a teenage boy screaming in agony from the room above, it's upsetting."

"We'll soundproof the lab."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Roland sighed. "So what's going on with the Reality Anchor?"

"What do you mean?"

"Last I saw you you were rambling about how effective the SRA was in limiting One's abilities. He couldn't even lift a drop of water a few days ago and now he's punching you in the gut? Either One's stronger than you think or the anchor shorted out."

"That's impossible. Scranton Reality Anchors don't  _short out_ , they explode. The fallout would be immediate. There's no way we wouldn't notice."

"I mean, maybe someone chose the wrong time to turn it off."

"...Mark, where's the break room?"

"The what?"

"Break room, Mark. I never saw the break room here. Where is it?"

"We don't have a break room."

"Shit."

* * *

Researcher David █████ was a creepy little man that nobody at Site-28 wanted to have anything to do with. As a result, nobody asked what he was doing when he went outside and bought a hot dog.

He ignored his assurance to Researcher Marino that he would come back and perform the bone marrow aspiration. Instead, he took his half-eaten hot dog into the stairwell. Down and down, into the basement. He ignored the sign on the double doors that said "keep out," flashed his ID to the guards, and continued into the electronics, finishing his last meal.

He looked into the dusty memories at the back of his brain and pulled out the deactivation code. He calmly punched it into the Scranton Reality Anchor's keypad.

A guard's voice called out from behind him, and the thing wearing Researcher David █████ curved his lips into a smile before lunging.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how is this relevant to what happened in the last chapter? it will all become clear soon uwu


	6. The One Where Nico Yells At Dream People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WHOOPS WHOOPS WHOOPS THIS ISN'T DONE YET AAAAAAA

Meanwhile, Nico and Annabeth were both asleep on the floor of the Hypnos cabin and standing on a carpet made of puppies.

In the dream, they were at a half-remembered memory of a Starbucks with what, by all means, was a ghost. Didn't look any ghost Nico had ever seen, though. They were seven feet tall, bathed in a chartreuse green glow, and had an upright chili pepper where their head should be. This was the Oneiroi that Clovis introduced them to. Clovis was not physically there because he was keeping the environment stable. Oneiroi lived on a deeper level than the usual demigod dreams, in the vast cornfields of the mind. It was very possible for something to go bad.

The two demigods had spent the past hours (or minutes, or seconds) giving Green Hot Chili Pepper a summary of the situation. "So, I can normally reach people through their dreams, but right now I can't reach Percy. I'm trying to dream in his direction. It just isn't working," Nico explained.

Chili Pepper sipped their vanilla latte. Well, they tried to. For lack of a mouth, the beverage just ended up on the barking puppy-floor. "If he's in a Foundation site, they have at least one reality anchor."

Annabeth was perplexed, or at least Nico thought she was perplexed. Her entire body was made of Rubik's cube tiles. "Reality anchor. What's that?"

"It's a device that makes the weird stuff less weird," Chili Pepper said. "Honestly, it's probably better that they used the anchor. If they were using Telekill, it would be much, much harder to get rid of."

Nico had no clue what they were talking about, but he kept listening.

"For a price, I can disable the reality anchor."

"How long will it be down?" Nico asked.

"As long as it takes for them to clean it. Heck, they might need to ship in a new one, if it's broken enough."

"What's the price?"

Chili Pepper hummed thoughtfully. "Your body," they finally said.

"Excuse me?" Nico spluttered.

"No, no. It's not salacious. I lost my body a couple hundred years ago. While I don't need to eat anymore, I do miss it," they said, spilling more latte on the ground. "It'll only be for a little while."

Nico glanced at Annabeth. Her Rubik's cube eyes had the same look of suspicion, but this seemed to be the only way forward. "Fine. Do what you have to."

Chili Pepper snapped their chartreuse fingers. "It's done."

Nico was yanked out of mindspace and found himself in a duller, heavier spot. This was a typical demigod dream.

He was in a brightly lit hallway. Two guards stood in front of the door at the end. In front of the guards stood the Foundation doctor Marina Marino. "You can't come in, ma'am," the guard said gruffly. "This is under investigation."

"I was the last person to talk to him," she insisted.

Nico breezed by the guards to see what had happened.

He felt somebody had knocked the wind out of him.

A metal bubble was set up at the far wall of the room, cords and pipes anchoring it down. This machine might've done something interesting when it was working, but right now its steel shell was torn open to reveal the machinery. The machinery, which was covered in the rest of the viscera and brain matter from the mangled corpse of a researcher wedged inside of it.

Chili Pepper, suddenly next to Nico, said "And that's the end of that."

"You killed that guy," Nico whispered.

They shrugged. "It wasn't hard. He went out of the anchor's range to get lunch. I had a friend overpower his consciousness and disable the anchor."

"You didn't have to kill him."

"Killing him will give the Foundation a harder time. Plus, Prime Shaper was around since before Athens and was itching to die."

Nico narrowed his eyes. "I meant the researcher."

"He was a pedophile. World's a better place without him."

Nico wasn't sure if he wanted this person in his body.

Chili Pepper looked him up and down, only detectable by the slight motion of their neck.

"Something tells me this is going to be a very  _interesting_ business transaction."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short because. i don't know im tired and i hit the post button too early


	7. Iteration 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we're back babay!

**As of 6/30/20██, this article has been revised.**

**Item #:** SCP-3229

 **Object Class:** Euclid

 **Special Containment Procedures:**  Each instance of SCP-3229 is to be contained in a separate [Standard Humanoid Anomaly Containment Cell](http://www.scp-wiki.net/reach-s-blueprint-folder) modified appropriately for each instance located at Site-88.

Each instance of SCP-3229 has specialized containment procedures relating to its specific properties. For full containment details, consult Document-3229-A.

 **Description:** SCP-3229 designates a species or subspecies of the genus  _Homo_. SCP-3229 display a number of abnormal characteristics and behaviors that distinguish them from the baseline species. The most common deviations include:

  * Behavioral patterns consistent with ADHD; symptoms are not alleviated by medication
  * Symptoms of dyslexia when reading texts in Latin alphabets[1]
  * Resistance to amnestics and antimemes
  * Abnormal interactions with SCP-3229-related phenomena
  * Familiarity with certain dialects of Ancient Greek
  * Aversion to cell phones
  * Devout belief in Hellenic polytheism
  * An apparent lack of one or more biological parents
  * Attendance of an anomalous summer camp; details below



Note that while all recorded instances displayed these characteristics, additional anomalous and thaumaturgic properties may be present and vary between individual instances.

Individual instances are prone to gathering in groups, whether aware of their anomalous nature or not. This is typically the result of non-anomalous outside influences, such as joining a tutoring program or support group. A notable institution referred to as "Camp Half-Blood" has been referenced by several instances; location efforts are ongoing.

The first three instances of SCP-3229 were discovered on 6/██/20██. Two escaped by utilizing unforeseen anomalous properties, prompting a further investigation into SCP-3229. At the time of writing, the Foundation has contained 34 instances of SCP-3229, several of which were discovered within the existing D-Class and SCP population. Related phenomena have been recorded below.

**Addendum-01: Related Phenomena**

SCP-3229-A is a mild antimemetic effect that surrounds an instance of SCP-3229. This effect alters all anomalous activity to be perceived as an action within the parameters of non-anomalous activity, and has been referred to as a "mist" by SCP-3229. A number of Foundation personnel are immune to the effect, believed to be a result of past/present mnestic use.

SCP-3229-B is a substance recovered by Agent Mark Roland from a cabin inhabited by SCP-3229 instances in Montauk, New York. SCP-3229-B is three bags of yellow cubes marked "AMBROSIA." Each bag is attached to a hand-written label[2], believed to have been penned by SCP-3229-01. SCP-3229-B causes spontaneous combustion in 9█.█% of D-Class personnel.

SCP-3229-C is a collection of swords composed of anomalous metal that is currently pending description. All known instances of SCP-3229-C have been sent to Kiryu Labs for testing.

"Camp Half-Blood" is a summer camp allegedly attended by 12 out of 34 contained instances of SCP-3229. Employment records for have not been found. Persons who attended Camp Half-Blood are Persons of Interest, and are currently still at large.

**Addendum-02: Notable SCP-3229 Instances**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i literally hijacked the html in an scp page to make that table authentique. ur welcome
> 
> not all of those demigods mentioned in the table will make an appearance. i mean sure, i'll throw one in if you request them, but mostly they're there to establish that the foundation has very much contained A Lot Of Demigods, even a few who were already in containment to begin with.
> 
> also the foundation's onto something. let's hope we can get percy before anything Really Bad happens...


End file.
